Curiosity Killed the Cat
by iDatenshi
Summary: When Sakura begs for a mission from Tsunade, that may have been a very big mistake. Will it be possible to warn Naruto and the rest of the village before it's too late?
1. Too Dangerous

Another hot summer day was upon Konohagakure. Everything was green and peaceful, except at the village's gates that is.

"What do you mean I can't leave the village?!" Sakura's face was turning a pretty shade of pink. Fighting with Naruto was taking a toll on her temper stick.

"I mean that this mission, the one that you begged the old lady for, is going to get you killed. It's too dangerous for any one person. I don't want you to leave the village unless you have someone to go with you." For once Naruto was actually calm. Instead of throwing a hissy fit, he was trying to be reasonable.

"Hm, let's see, you can't go anywhere because the Akatsuki is all over the place looking for you, Kakashi-sensei can't go because he managed to break his leg on his last mission. No way in hell am I going with Sai and Sasuke isn't exactly here." Sakura's crush on Sasuke had warn out when she realized that he didn't want to come back and yet, she still treated Naruto more like a brother than anything. "So, who do you propose I take?" Naruto thought for a moment. It was true that everyone that would or could help Sakura was unavailable. The Rookie Nine were all out on missions and/or not really around.

"Please Sakura…" Naruto's eyes were forming tears. _I hope this works._ "Please don't go. I don't want to lose another precious person." He tilted his head down and looked up at Sakura from underneath his eye lashes which made her breathe catch. She walked forwards and put her arms around his waist.

"I have to. If I don't do this, then who will?" Sakura let him go and walked out of the Konoha gates.

Sakura rushed through the trees. _Did he have to cry? _Her heart throbbed for a certain blonde shinobi. _Now I feel bad._ A sudden flash of black and red made her come to a halt. _Why is Akatsuki around this area? There would be no cause for Naruto to come this way and they know it. _Just how curiosity killed the cat, curiosity was killing Sakura. She shrugged to herself. _Can't hurt to take a look, make sure it's not a couple of kids playing a nasty trick._ She started up again and jumped from tree to tree, and eventually coming to a small clearing. She double checked that her chakra patterns were hidden and moved in the line of trees around the clearing, trying to see if anyone was in or around it.

"Good morning, Sakura." She jumped and whirled around, not expecting a pair of Sharingan to be looking her straight in the eye. Her last thought before going down: _Please leave Naruto alone. Just kill me instead so I don't have to look at the his face. Oh-so peaceful. I couldn't bare it._

_**Author's Note: I know that it's short but I liked how it lined up perfectly to skip to another chapter. Please review, I am very proud of this peice. **_


	2. Into Akatsuki We Go

Sakura woke to find chains on her wrists and ankles. _What the hell?_ She attempted to look around but it was pointless. The room was pitch black and the only sound was a ceiling fan somewhere above her head. A light suddenly filled the room and Sakura could see a figure standing in the doorway. His hair was spiky and she could see a slight glint coming from somewhere on his face.

"Who the hell are you and why the hell am I chained up? Am I some sort of doll for a pedophile?" The figure chuckled and walked into the room, shutting the door behind himself.

"You think that the Akatsuki would keep a girl for sex?" A light flickered on over in a corner. "We do not need to do such things. The Akatsuki does pride itself." The figure's face was hard to make out because of the angle he was at but Sakura could see that he had orange hair and many different piercings.

"You!" Sakura's brain seemed to click in at the thought. "You're Pein! Why would the _leader_ of Akatsuki come and talk to me?"

"Because I want something from you." Sakura got a look of disgust on her face.

"Like what?"

"Let us start from the beginning, shall we?" Pein went over to another corner and lit a light. Now the room was easier to see. It was small and was definitely a holding room. The walls were stained with many people's lives.

"Fine."

"As much as I hate to admit it, our organization is starting to crumble under pressure. The pillars stay strong but the roof does not want to hold." Pein walked over to Sakura and looked down at her. Only then did she realize she was sitting on the ground. "Our problem is that one of our pillars was taken down. As you can see, one pillar effects the rest." Sakura nodded. It made sense. "In order to solve this problem, we need a new pillar. Are you getting my point Sakura?"

"You want me to find you another S-class criminal?"

"No, we want _you_ to _become _an S-class criminal." Sakura's eyes grew wide.

"What? Hell no! That means that I would have to go after my best friend and I can't do that."

"I am giving up on the Kyuubi. He does not matter. Akatsuki needs to gain back its dignity."

"Akatsuki had dignity? Ha! That's funny."

"I wouldn't antagonize the Leader of a dangerous organization Sakura." The breathe on her ear and the voice in it was cold as ice. It sent shivers down Sakura's spine.

"Nice to see you too _Itachi_." Sakura knew better but these people were asking a stupid question and they were going to get a stupid answer.

"You're such a bright young girl, Sa-ku-ra." Itachi pulled her name into three syllables and walked over to Pein. "Is she this valuable?"

"Her strength and medic-nin knowledge will help us. It's odd that we'd have to go against Orochimaru in the end instead of Konoha but, there is no other way to do this." Pein looked at a clock on one of the tables. "The meeting is about to start. Itachi, stay here and get to know your new team-mate." Pein seemed to stalk out of the room like a dangerous cat and then it was just Itachi and Sakura.

"Explain to me, why am I so important? I would have expected it to be Naruto. He's the Kyuubi. He's got what you guys all want so bad. So why me?" Itachi seemed glare at her. _He has emotion?_

"Hn." Sakura got a look on her face and almost had the word 'dumbass' written in it.

"Come on, even Sasuke can give me more than a 'hn' to that one…actually he would be gloating about now. He'd be telling me his master plan to overthrow you and how I would help him to benefit and he'd even be trying to manipulate me. So what's your problem?" Itachi was definitely glaring now.

"Hn." Sakura gave a wicked grin.

"Hey Itachi, too bad you like guys because then I could get you to open up pretty easy." Sakura let the grin fade and then got serious. "I need to take a shower, or, at least get out of these dirty clothes." Itachi threw an Akatsuki cloak and a pink piece of fabric. Right then and there, Sakura stripped down to wearing nothing but her shirt and underwear. She spotted a pair of black shorts with a pink stripe down each thigh. "Pass me the shorts too would you?" The shorts flew and just before they hit her face, Sakura caught them. "Thanks." She put everything on with the cloak tied around her waist with the pink fabric and a black piece of fabric from her old shorts. Her hair had to be dealt with though. It was long again and it couldn't stay down when she was trying to do things. She started looking around for a kunai and Itachi seemed to read her mind.

"Here." He handed her one and she quickly took it. She cut her hair into short layers falling down to long hair at the back. She handed Itachi the kunai and ripped a few more pieces of black fabric. She tied the longer hair into low pigtails.

"That should do." She smiled. Itachi glared.

"Emotions are things to use against you. Things that will get you killed." Sakura's smile turned into a scowl.

"Shut up _team-mate_."


End file.
